Hillbilly Elegy

from Leslie County, Kentucky. He talks
like he’s from Jackson. I was telling him
how much bullshit it was that Catholics
got all the free time they did. They get it
because of the way the church schedule
works. He is definitely a country kid,
’cause he said, ‘What’s a Catholic?’ And
I told him that it was just another form of
Christianity, and he said, ‘I might have to
try that out.’” Mamaw understood
precisely where he came from. “Down
in that part of Kentucky, everybody’s a
snake handler,” she wrote back, only
partially joking.
During my time away, Mamaw
showed vulnerability that I’d never seen
before. Whenever she received a letter